Behind the LRA's terror tactics

By Martin Plaut BBC News, Yambio

Mr Kony is said to relish recognition - and free food and cash at peace talks

The Lord's Resistance Army, once a Ugandan group, has driven tens of thousands from their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan since it launched a campaign of terror at Christmas.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) estimates that by the end of January 130,000 Congolese and at least 10,000 Sudanese had been forced to flee.

In addition, the UNHCR reports that an LRA attack on the Congolese town of Aba, population 100,000, resulted in almost the entire population evacuating the town.

It believes that 5,000 have already crossed into Sudan at the town of Lasu.

See map of LRA attacks

This pattern of attacks, all along a 300km (186-mile) stretch of the Sudan-Congo border, follows a co-ordinated offensive against the LRA late in 2008.

On 14 December the forces of three countries